Report Card: A to SoCon in Asheville

Mar. 11, 2013

The Report Card issues grades A through F, and incompletes where necessary, to a variety of news items in this space. Got an idea that makes the grade? Send it to JBuchanan@CITIZEN-TIMES.com

A to the continued success of clean energy companies in Western North Carolina and the state as a whole. The Tar Heel economy shed more than 100,000 jobs from 2007-12, but clean energy companies, which include solar power firms, added 21,162 jobs for the same period. North Carolina ranked second in the nation, just behind California in 2012, lining up projects that will add with an estimated 10,800 jobs, according to a report Wednesday from Environmental Entrepreneurs. “Solar is the fastest-growing sector in North Carolina by far,” said Matt Raker of the AdvantageWest economic development agency for the region. Locally, FLS Energy is a huge success story. Michael Shore and co-founders Dale Freudenberger and Hardy LeGwin, launched FLS Energy in 2006, mainly building solar thermal systems to heat water for households, hotels and other businesses. FLS Energy has seen its gross profits grow from $8.1 million in 2009 to $42 million last year. For two years running, FLS ranked as the state’s fastest-growing company on Inc. magazine’s list of the nation’s top 500 companies. From the three founders, the company has since grown to 65 employees, headquartered now in the River Arts District of Asheville, but its range of projects stretches across the state, the Southeast and even the nation.

D to the dubious potential sale of an 80,000-acre research forest near Jacksonville used by N.C. State University. The forest has been used by N.C. State’s forestry program since the 1930s. Critics of the sale include alumni and faculty, with more than 700 people signing an online petition requesting the university take the property off the market. The sale was OK’d by a unanimous vote of the Natural Resources Foundation Board on Jan. 19, followed by a Feb. 21 vote of the N.C. State Endowment Fund Board voted to endorse the sale. Criticisms of the move include charges the process wasn’t publicized very well and that timing of the sale is lousy. Ashcraft said the process was open, but some have specific information about the impending sale that was not well-publicized public before the board took action. Barney Bernard, a Durham-based forestry consultant, told the Raleigh News & Observer that “the timber industry has been depressed since about 2008 … selling at the lowest point in the market is a violation of their fiduciary duties.”

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A to the return of Southern Conference basketball championship play to Asheville. Last night’s men’s title game concluded the second year of the city’s three-year contract, and again the reviews have been positive. Stephanie Brown, executive director of the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau, said, “The tournament is such a great opportunity for Asheville. It really brings a large number of visitors to our town to understand how special it is while they’re here for something that’s special to them, too. It’s a great economic driver, generating well more than 4,000 hotel room nights and meals and shopping and things that benefit us long-term.” Top-flight competition in a top-flight city. What’s not to like?

I for incomplete for some lingering questions involving the role Gov. Pat McCrory played in luring MetLife to the state. The deal seems to be a good one, resulting in 2,600 jobs. But the questions are substantial and were best summed up by the first sentence of an Associated Press story last week: “Gov. Pat McCrory avoided questions Friday about the state offering MetLife Inc. $94 million in tax breaks and other incentives to move thousands of jobs to North Carolina and using his former employer to help broker the deal.” Moore & Van Allen, a Charlotte law firm where now-Gov. McCrory worked almost up until his inauguration, helped MetLife negotiate with local and state governments to receive the taxpayer-funded incentives. No ethical fire here as yet, but theirs is a whiff of ethical smoke in the air that needs to be cleared.

A to Mission Hospital for being named as one of the nation’s Top 100 Hospitals by Truven Health Analytics, formerly known as Thomson Reuters, for the fifth consecutive year. The annual study evaluates hospitals across the nation on measures of overall organizational performance, including patient care, operational efficiency and financial stability.